Ceramics Technology Career Description
Ceramics technology is concerned with the research, development and manufacturing of non-metallic inorganic materials, as well as with the industrial process that convert raw materials into products with a higher economic value through physical, thermal and chemical changes.
What am I going to do in this occupation?
Ceramics technology embraces important strategic industries such as the refractories industry. Another example is the structural clay industry that manufactures bricks, roof and floor tiles, sewer-pipes and many other materials. There is also the white ware industry that manufactures wall tiles, sanitary ware, tableware and technical porcelain. One of the newer developments of ceramics is oxide ceramics that manufactures components for electronics - ceramics technologists have manufactured a motor engine with ceramics components. Space research is another field where ceramics plays an important role.
Ceramics technologists are needed in all the above-mentioned fields to do research, develop new products, act as production managers or technical advisors and develop new machinery to be used in the ceramics industry.
Ceramics technologists in research and development work with engineers and scientists to find new processing methods and develop them into practical schemes. Ceramics technologists in design and construction help with the building of new process plants and the modification of existing ones. They use computers to calculate the quantities of raw material and energy, which are needed to make the required amounts of final product, in order to determine the capacity of equipment needed.
Ceramics technologists responsible for process operation must ensure that all the temperatures, pressures and flows are correct. They must also ensure that plants are run as economically as possible.
Requirements
What kind of personality do I need? Prospective ceramics technologists must have an aptitude for making things work. They must be interested in materials.
Where can I work?
Ceramics technologists are employed by organisations and plants in the heavy clay industries (bricks, roof tiles, floor tiles etc.), refractory industries (high temperature insulation), cement industries, white ware industries (tableware, sanitary ware etc.), glass industries (bottles, windows etc.), glaze industries (thin glass coatings on plates), advanced ceramics industries (car engines, space craft etc.) and the medical industries (drill bits etc.).
Can I work for myself in this occupation?
Ceramics technologists can act as consultants on a contract basis.
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